I'm a visual person and don't fancy myself a writer in any way, so it feels strange and uncomfortable to have a blog at times. I'd be happy just posting photos on my instagram account, but the photos are so tiny and sometimes I want to share what's going on over here.. my process, my little business, a bit of my personal life. 
Does anyone care?  I dunno... Imma do it anyway. 

So as I mentioned in my last post, the ever hospitable, bad-ass ladies over at the Sou'Wester lodge in Seaview WA offered me an artist residency to work on some new designs when I was staying here in January celebrating the new year. I love this place and these rad women and am super excited to be here for an entire week!
Here are some of the highlights of my stay:

Monday: Got here around 4. I'm staying in room #2 in the Lodge which is freaking adorable and has photos on the wall of one of my favorite Portland performance artists: the inimitable Alicia McDaid.  The 3 story lodge was originally built as a vacation home by Oregon U.S. Senator Harry Corbett in 1892. The second floor, where my room is, was formerly a ballroom that was split up into 4 units in the 50′s. Each suite has a kitchen and bathroon and retains much of the original charm from that era. (You can see more photos from a post I did while staying here last summer here)

Unpacked, set a work schedule for the week, ate some homemade chicken soup that Anna made, drank some wine and passed out!

Wednesday: Woke up in the middle of the night from what turned out to be a hail storm. The next morning the ground was covered with a pretty blanket of white. Meditated, exercised... still pretty crappy out, but nice and cozy in the lodge! Abandoned said "schedule" and went to the grocery store which turned into an impromptu thrift store excursion. I scored some good stuff though so it was worth it.  I also stopped in the "Thrify Trailer" which is parked next to the lodge (the one with the glowing jesus kneeling next to the door) and found a black wool St Johns dress and a double breasted wool sweater... nice! 
Yeah, so I got a late start and ended up working from about 3-8. Finished a new soft leather and fabric clutch/purse prototype which I hope to have in production by the end of the month!  Burger night at the Depot next door. Stayed up late drinking wine, shooting the shit and painting nails with Anna and Kathy. I definitely had a hangover the next day. whoops.

Album of the day: Funkadelic - Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow
Message of the day: Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow

Got back to the lodge around 11 to work. I'm using chintzy materials for prototyping since I end up wasting a lot of material redrafting patterns over and over (old vinyl instead of leather and light weight canvas) Not to mention I was not about to haul a 100 lb. industrial leather walking foot and industrial serger to the coast! I'm hesitant to post these not so great photos, but you get the idea - This will have a leather top, leather bottom and an adjustable leather strap with lined canvas or woven kilim body. Some sort of closure as well..  
Measures about 11 x 12.5 x 3.75"

The intrepid Julia Barbee (sculptor, designer, jeweler, perfumer, scavenger, all-around-renaissance-woman) decided to come hang with me for the night at the lodge (yay!) so I called it a quits around 4:00. 
We cooked a delicious dinner with Kathy and talked about old and new friends, relationships, the things we have and the things we leave behind... 
It was lovely.
This is what we ate: Olive Oil Roasted Fennel, Cherry Tomatoes and Cannellini Beans (recipe below!)  side: braised Kale / Salad / Baguette 

Olive Oil Roasted Fennel, Cherry Tomatoes 
and Cannellini Beans:

2 large fennel bulbs with fronds attached
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt, divided
2 pints grape tomatoes or cherry tomatoes
4 large fresh oregano sprigs (or any fresh italian herbs will do)
3 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 15-ounce cans cannellini (or white beans), drained

Preheat oven to 425°F. Chop enough fennel fronds to measure 1/2 cup. Trim fennel bulbs and cut in half vertically. Cut each bulb half ito 1/2-inch-wide wedges, leaving some core attached to each wedge.

Heat oil in large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat until very hot, about 3 minutes. Add fennel wedges in single layer; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon coarse salt. Cook until fennel begins to brown and soften, turning occasionally, 10 to 12 minutes. Add tomatoes, oregano, garlic, and crushed red pepper; sprinkle with 1 teaspoon coarse salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Fold together gently.

Transfer skillet to oven. Bake fennel and tomatoes until soft, stirring occasionally, about 15 or so minutes. Mix in beans and 6 tablespoons chopped fennel fronds. Bake 5 minutes longer to heat through. Transfer mixture to large shallow bowl. Sprinkle with remaining chopped fronds. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Album of the day: Dr. John - Gris Gris
Message for the day: Nothing is permanent. Live in the NOW. Opportunities are fleeting and so is life.

Friday:  Woke up to a beautiful, sunny day. Julia and I made coffee then put on our galoshes and headed to the beach for a brisk walk. We walked quite a ways then headed back towards the lodge on the "Discovery Trail" - a paved 8 mile walking/biking trail that runs through an expanse of golden grassy dunes and and young evergreen trees. This relatively new coastline was formed when a jetty was built in Astoria in the late 1800's pushing the beach farther out and creating new space. Thandi, one of the owners, told me that the Sou'Wester used to be beach front property at one time. Now the beach is a quick 3 minute walk away. 

Hungry after all of that walking, we looked for a dive bar with breakfast. We tried 2 places that were closed and ended up at the Lamplighter which happens to be right next to the lodge. Probably one of the ugliest bars I've ever been in "Man, the things we could DO to this place!", but a really decent (and HUGE) breakfast. I highly recommend the eggs benny. NOT the coffee. Better off with a bloody mary or hot toddy I'd imagine.
Made it back around noon. Julia headed back to Portland and I worked on a simple zipper version of the shoulder bag above until late in the evening. I plan to make this out of woven kilim textiles and leather:

Saturday:  Got up around 8 - did my morning meditation and some reading of this book which is taking me forever to finish because I don't make time to read. That said, it's one of those books that I think everyone should read at some point. Seriously.  
Worked on a little collaborative project with Thandi to make some quilted wool slippers for the lodge out of wool blankets from a pattern she'd found. I'll try to post a little "DIY wool slippers tutorial" at some point. They actually turned out pretty awesome!  

A band was playing that night in the Lodge, so we all whipped up a winter-summer style BBQ - I made the coleslaw, Anna made potato salad, one of the guests made frito pie, Kathy worked the grill and yo, did I mention Kathy's HOT BUNS?!  It was a lot of fun. I ate toooo much. 

                  The aftermath:

Did some blogging and emailing after dinner and found out via the internet that an old friend had passed away on Thursday night which was the same night we were talking about friends lost and the things we leave behind and my cliché message of the day being "Nothing is permanent. Live in the NOW. Opportunities are fleeting and so is life." I stayed in my room most of the night reading a thread that was posted about our friend: the good, bad and ugly memories, the funny, tragic and heartbreaking stories that embodied this bigger than life, extraordinary person... pain and regret and sadness from people that had detached from him for one reason or another and were questioning themselves now. I just sat there, reflecting on my own personal relationships and the people that I love and the few that I've fallen out with or lost touch with. I felt this urgency to call or write each of those people and tell them how much I DID love and appreciate them and why, or how sorry I am for fucking up or that I'm no longer holding onto this or that resentment because it's just not worth it! Sometimes we do have to detach from unhealthy relationships. Sometimes we just need some time and space... what ever the case may be, we always have the choice to do it with love and kindness instead of anger and resentment.  I will leave this place feeling fortunate to have the charmed life that I have and a deep sense of gratitude for the people and things in my life. I AM going to write those letters because guess what, life is just too damn chaotic and unpredictable NOT to.  

Tomato season in the NW is September/October. People forget (every year it seems) that our summers are pretty much the months of July/August/September... Our Fall can be really lovely too. That said, my garden was pathetic this year. I built a bunch of raised beds with high hopes on the S. facing side of my house a few years back, but year after year, my yield gets worse and worse with more aphids and moth eggs and slugs. I vowed NOT to do any more gardening until I get some professional advice so 5 of my 7 raised beds were sadly empty this year... with a smattering of garlic flowers and some strays from the year before... In the other 2 beds I planted tomatoes and greens (kale and chard mostly). The greens are still tiny and I'm hoping they'll take off as it gets colder, but the tomatoes, for my lack of care, did pretty ok!  Below are some of my favorite things to make with "too many tomatoes". Enjoy.

Below: 
Egg cooked over easy in tomato-garlic sauce with fresh basil and parmesan on toast

Recipe for one Tomato/Egg/Garlic on Toast

-slice one tomato for each egg to be cooked
-chop one or two clove of garlic per egg/tomato
-heat olive oil in a small skillet. 
-add the sliced tomato and garlic. 
-add S+P
-saute until the tomato breaks down and turns into a sauce - let it reduce a bit
-when the garlic is soft, make a well in the center of the tomato sauce and break an egg into the center.
-Cover and cook "sunnyside up" or flip it over-easy style
-meanwhile, toast the bread, grate some parmesan, and chop some fresh basil.
-serve on toast with parm and basil. 
BEST BREAKFAST EVER (almost)

Roasted Tomato Chipotle Salsa:

Loose Recipe for Roasted Tomato Chipotle Salsa:

-thickly slice or quarter tomatoes - enough to fill a 9x13" pan (or you can do 2 pans at a time, just double this recipe)
-roughly chop one onion and peel one whole head of garlic. 
-mix toms, garlic cloves and onion with generous amt of olive oil in a bowl to coat thoroughly. add S + P.
-spread on a glass dish or cookie sheet with edge. drizzle with more olive oil if necessary.
-broil in the oven, stirring every 10 minutes until there are some nice charred spots and the tomatoes break down and get saucy, about 1/2 hour to 45 min?

-MEANWHILE-

-boil a cup of water. remove from heat.
-take the stems off of 3 dried chipotle peppers and 3 dried cascabel peppers (or you can use all chipotle if you want) 
-heat up a cast iron skillet and dry toast them on both sides until they smell fragrant, about a minute total. 
-submerge the peppers in the hot water by putting a bowl on top or else they will float. 
-after they have sit in the water for 15 minutes, pour out most of the water and blend the peppers in a blender or food processor.
-When the roasted tomato/garlic/onion is done, add this to the chile peppers and pulse/blend into a salsa. 
I like to add about a tbsp of toasted and ground cumin seeds. Salt to taste. Top with freshly chopped cilantro.
Eat what you can and freeze the rest!

p.s. I'm happy to report that the lovely Clea Partridge is going to take over my garden beds for her urban CSA project! I am super excited to help, watch, and learn how to whip my garden into shape. Yay! 

I have to admit... I really do work less than I should in the summer. Living in the Northwest means a quick 3 months (if we're lucky) of REAL sun and a just enough heat to jump in the river and go swimming once in awhile... basically July, August and September.  So here I am:  enjoying summer, hanging out by the river, cabin cooking, readin' and chillin'... I put some good summer recipes below from my cabin visit. Trying to get back on the "Food Friday" tip and blog more in general.  In the meantime...
GO ENJOY SUMMER! 

Where the magic happens...

Some of my favorite things: Floating down the Santiam River and cooking at the cabin.

_It's a total drag. First I was sick over NYE but made the best of it with hot toddies and boggle while hanging at the coast with friends. Getting over it I thought "hey, that wasn't so bad for my once a year cold" then
-BAM- I got this heinous upper respirtory/sinus infection that made my head want to explode and my lungs hurt from coughing so hard. The last to go.. my voice. I sound like a dying cow as I type this.  Yesterday our basement flooded and today I had a full cord of heavy maple delivered in the RAIN. I just loooove stacking soggy wood, lemme tell ya.
So waaa waaa waaaa.. this is what I was craving after being sick, tired cold and achy and it really did the trick. (and it's easy as hell.)

(confession: just this once... squash pic - not mine, though I did "polaroid-ize" it. Bottom pic: view from my kitchen window)

Curried Pumpkin (or Butternut Squash as it were) Coconut Soup: